Learning to Be Corrected

How self-worth, not pride, determines our ability to grow.

Potential is bridged in years, not decades, if we are able to learn from the broken.

Those who cannot handle being told they have made a mistake, or that there is a better way, or even another way, are people who in their earlier years were not bolstered by love and positive feedback.

Some heal from this, while others have an open, bleeding wound that does not heal. They are tortured and traumatised and cannot handle negative feedback, especially from those who are not healed, whole, or wise themselves.

For the broken, our job is to heal, and to heal we need new paradigms.

But our wounds keep us from incorporating new information that tells us we are wrong or misguided. To us, the core beliefs we try to distract ourselves from are that on a fundamental level we are wrong, bad, unworthy, useless, and even evil.

Anything that cuts through our protective layers and confirms those core beliefs sends us spiralling, so we reject the message and the person giving it.

We become upset, we unravel, our padding of ego has been penetrated, our bubble has burst, and the time for reinflating that bubble is now.

Only through self-knowledge, understanding, and kindness of self and from others can we learn to understand that we are not fundamentally good or bad, or wrong or right, just flawed and human, capable of doing better when we know better.

Only after a person becomes strong and feels worthy can they shed their ego bubble and take on negative feedback without collapsing in on themselves.

The bubble is a war-like state in opposition to others. Only through real esteem and self-worth, not self-righteousness, can we be real with ourselves and live a life of self-correction and the ability to be corrected by others if need be. To listen and learn.

There is a catch-22 at play, which is why many of the broken stay broken.

To fully collapse in on yourself and see yourself for who you really are, then build from there, means recognising the bubble and reducing its need through positive action, words, and thoughts, and by being surrounded by people who do the same.